The present invention relates to equipment for filing in-place a flexible intermediate bulk container (FIBC) or bulk bag utilizing earthmoving equipment.
Sandbags have been used since at least the late 1700s. Sandbags are bags, typically of burlap, cotton and most commonly polypropylene, which are filled with sand or soil and used for flood control, the construction of military fortifications, and even for low-cost housing. Sandbags can be filled by hand or by equipment such as shown in my previous U.S. Pat. No. 8,100,301, issued Jan. 24, 2012, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,510,365 issued Mar. 31, 2009. Sandbags are typically constructed of circularly woven polypropylene and have dimensions of 14″×26″ and are designed hold to in the neighborhood of 30-70 pounds of sand so as to be carried by a single person.
More recently so-called flexible intermediate bulk container (FIBC) bulk bags or big bags have been used as sandbags. FIBC bulk bags were originally developed as an industrial container made of flexible fabric for storing and transporting dry, flowable products, such as sand, fertilizer, and granules of plastic. These bulk bags are often made of thick woven polyethylene or polypropylene, either coated or uncoated, and typically measure approximately 36×36 or 45-48 inches in maximum dimension or diameter and vary in height from 35 to 80 inches. A bulk bag's capacity is typically about 2,000 lbs, but larger bags are also used. A bulk bag weighing only 5 to 7 pounds can contain over a ton of material. Bulk bags may have a spout off the top for loading and/or a spout on the bottom for unloading, or bags may have an open top with or without a portion of the bag which folds over the bag opening.
When used as sandbags to build a retaining structure, the bags are typically filled in a stand or by a special purpose front-end loader with a large opening in the bottom of the loader bucket which fills the bag as sand or rock is scooped into the loader bucket. The bags are then transported to the place of use.
What is needed is a bucket which can be mounted to lighter weight equipment such as a skid-steer loader which, in addition to supplying a feed to fill conventional sandbags, can load one or several buckets of material into a bulk bag positioned in its final resting place.